Gloria Vanderbilt, New Yorker elite– beautiful, talented, rich – an incredible woman, who celebrated her 85th birthday this autumn, can look back on a successful life: lovers, husbands, houses, books and various careers.

The daughter and heiress to railroad millions (her father died of the effects of alcohol abuse), she was thrust into the public eye at an early age. When her mother then pursued lesbian escapades in Europe, her aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who later founded the Whitney-Museum, publicly fought her birth mother for custody rights in court.

But it was too late, the virus had already infected poor little Gloria. Aged 17, she entered the first of four marriages, bore children from various men, her son’s suicide …. Thank goodness aunt Gertrude, who passed away in 1942, didn’t witness the haunting tragedies and accompanying press coverage.

Gloria dedicated an entire book to the love in her life - It Seemed Important at the Time: A Romance Memoir (RRP: EUR 17.80). We would also thoroughly recommend this book. Gloria casually, elegantly and optimistically shares stories about the men in her life, from sex practices such as cunnilingus, willing accomplices such as Nancy Reagan and permanent erections. Obviously, this is a book you’ll read through quickly.

On the other hand, the large photo book, which is published by Schirmer/Mosel, presents a world that the average central European is not familiar with. The lives of New York’s social elite revolve around high-end culture and high-end luxury.

The book uses images by the world’s most renowned photographers to illustrate how Gloria Vanderblt lived an imaginative and incredibly feminine life. Gloria was also a former girlfriend of poly sexual author Truman Capote and a likely inspiration behind a certain Holly Golightly, which the world fell in love with in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany's’.

The book presents the houses she grew up in, as well as the houses she decorated, brought her children up in and led her social life in. We recommend buying both so as to visualise the locations mentioned in her tales. Respect!